The present invention relates to a method for processing a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and more particularly to a method for processing silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials which makes it possible to speed up desilvering treatment of the silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials as well as to reduce the amount of waste liquor.
Generally, essential steps which are involved in the processing of color light-sensitive materials are color developing and desilvering processes. In the color developing process, the silver halide exposed to light is reduced with a developing agent to form elemental silver, on the other hand, the oxidized develping agent causes a reaction with a dye forming agent (coupler) to provide dye images. In the subsequent desilvering process, the elemental silver formed during the color developing process is oxidized with an oxidizing agent (generally referred to as "bleaching agent") and then the oxidized silver is made soluble in the developer by the action of a chelating agent for silver (usually referred to as "fixing agent"). Only the dye images remain on the color light-sensitive material through such a desilvering process.
The desilvering process can be performed using two baths, i.e., a bleaching bath containing a bleaching agent and a fixing bath containing a fixing agent or only one bath, i.e., bleach-fixing bath containing both bleaching and fixing agents.
The practical development further comprises, in addition to the foregoing processes, a variety of auxiliary processes for various purposes of, for instance, maintaining photographic and physical qualities of images and improving storability of images. Specific examples of such auxiliary processes (or baths) are a film-hardening bath, a stopping bath, a bath for stabilizing images and water washing baths.
Recently, a small-sized processing system called "Minilabo" is developed and the color light-sensitive materials are now processed in a photograph shop. It has been desired correspondingly to develop a rapid processing method for achieving short-time finishing and to reduce the amount of waste liquor of processing solutions or the amount of the processing solutions to be supplemented from the viewpoint of workability and processing cost. In the desilvering process, it is likewise tried to reduce the amount of the processing solutions to be supplemented (or replenishers). However, if the amount of the replenishers for the bleach-fixing and fixing solutions is reduced, a large amount of substances dissolved out from the light-sensitive materials, during desilvering process, such as silver ions and iodide ions are accumulated in the processing solution and as a result the rate of desilvering process extremely lowers. Particularly, the presence of iodide ions greatly impairs the desilvering rate. This problem becomes remarkable in the processing of light-sensitive materials for taking photographs containing a large amount of silver and iodide ions. However, such a reduction in desilvering rate is not acceptable since it is quite incompatible with the object of rapid processing. It has correspondingly been desired to develop a method for processing in which the reduction in the amount of the replenisher and the rapid processing can simultaneously be achieved and various studies have been conducted.
For instance, a method for regenerating a bleach-fixing solution by recovering silver therefrom to reuse the same is disclosed in Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication (hereinafter referred to as "J.P. KOKAI") Nos. 50-98837, 51-18541, 51-19535, 51-23732 and 54-19496 and Japanese Patent Publication for Opposition Purpose (hereunder referred to as "J.P. KOKOKU") No. 58-22528.
In addition, as to the recovery of silver from a fixing solution, J.P. KOKAI Nos. 62-69264, 62-71952 and 62-75525 propose that the reduction in the amount of replenisher (or waste liquor) and the rapid processing can be similtaneously achieved by fixing light-sensitive materials while simultaneously recovering silver and then bleach-fixing the material.
The foregoing methods are successful in some degree in the processing of light-sensitive materials having a low silver content, but they are not necessarily satisfied in the processing of light-sensitive materials having a high silver content and including iodide ions.
Moreover, OLS Nos. 2,717,674 and 2,916836; U.S. Pat. No. 3,253,920 and J.P. KOKAI Nos. 52-105820, 57-146249 and 61-95352 disclose a method for removing halogen ions by recovering a developer with an ion-exchange resin or an ion-exchange film, but this method is not necessarily successful in the removal of iodide ions from a fixing or bleach-fixing solution which contains a variety of anionic components other than iodide ions.